The SugaCity Love Tales family extends lots of love, peace, joy, and hope during the holiday season!  Take this time to reflect and enjoy your families.  May you all be blessed with a prosperous and healthy New Year!

Caribbean Christmas Traditions

Image Courtesy of St. Kitts Nevis Carnival

Image Courtesy of YouTube

Image Courtesy of Google

Image Courtesy of The Whoot

Image Courtesy of Sweet & Savory St. Kitts

Image Courtesy of Palm Island Resort Grenadines

As a child most of our family traditions included going to church, singing in "Lessons and Carols", and baking holiday pastries.  Now that I'm a parent, my husband and I have made our own traditions for our family.  Our family traditions include attending church services during the holiday season, trimming the tree, listening to holiday music, baking and watching classic holiday movies.  Some of our newer traditions (mainly for the children) include the Elf on the Shelf and now the Night Before Christmas Box.  My favorite traditions are watching the classic holiday movies, listening to the holiday music and baking.  It's amazing how my husband's culture as well as mine have blended.  His family is from Carriacou, Grenada and my family is from St. Kitts & Jamaica.  I think all Caribbean folks bake during the holidays but we all bake different things.  My mom always baked her black cake and that was it.  My mother-in-law bakes coconut tarts, sweetbread and sweet buns.  So I've been fortunate to be able to enjoy all and any of these freshly baked items every holiday season!  After a few years, I am more familiar with how to bake the coconut tarts because my husband and my mother-in-law have taught me.  However, the tradition isn't the same if we are not baking together.  We have now included my daughter in our baking tradition and she loves it as well!  Tonight we will begin our baking festivities!  There is plenty coconut to grate!  My experience has been that the scraped fingers and chipped fingernails are all so worth the yumminess of the finished product of coconut tart!  My In-laws also have a tradition of serenading their neighbors with a Caribbean holiday music called Parang. They go door-to-door with small instruments and sing Parang! We are both part of such rich cultures.  If my mom and I were to visit St. Kitts during this time, we would be celebrating Carnival (SugarMas). Our hope is to be able to pass along all these traditions to our children so that our ancestors' legacies can live on during holiday time.  Whatever you do during the holiday season as your traditions, hold it close and pass it on to your children or the young people in your family so that it will not be forgotten.  Whatever traditions you choose to follow, we wish you all the best during the holiday season.  Enjoy your family and be grateful for all your blessings!

Wishing you all Wonderful Thanksgiving!

Image courtesy of www.everydaytastes.com

Happy Birthday America!

So most 4th of July holidays, me and my family tend to take it easy either visiting family in Maryland or stay indoors at home.  This past 4th of July we actually created a plan for the day which included various activities in our town.  First, hubby and I decided to clean the house while the kids watched television and had breakfast. Then we all got dressed and went to our local seaport.  I live in a beach town so the seaport is always a close, fun option for us.  Apparently, there was a 4th of July parade in our town and then kids could all head to the seaport for free 4th of July activities.  My little ones wanted to do crafts, so they made fireworks using construction paper.  Then they colored a 4th of July activity sheet.  After the crafts, they went to feed some of the animals at the seaport's petting zoo. My son loved seeing the goats and sheep.  We walked along the seaports pier and the kids were able to play a little bit on the playground.  After the seaport, we had planned to see the movie, Despicable Me 2.  So we drove to our local movie theater, got popcorn and other snacks.  We thoroughly enjoyed the movie!  Mr. Gru, his daughters and his minions were so loveable.  After the movie, we hopped in the car and headed back to our town to see the fireworks!  My little ones just loved to see the brightly colored lights bursting into the air.  It was really a special time that our family was able to just enjoy hanging out in and around our town.  We tend to travel a lot so this was truly a fun, yet laid back way to celebrate our great country.  Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th!  Until my next post, sending you love from the sweeter side of life!

Keeping Things Interesting!

So I was finally able to drag the hubby out to dance with me.  We went to a Sparkling breakfast party (it was literally called Sparkle)...an event that could only be invented by Trinidadians!  You see, in Trinidad, these island people fete (party) at any hour of the day.  It is said that the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago have popularized Carnival throughout the Caribbean and in parts of the United States.  One of their many fetes include breakfast parties.  Sparkle in particular, began at 6am and ended roughly about 12 or 1pm.  It took place on New Year's Day.  So instead of us going out to a party on New Year's Eve to ring in the new year, we rang in the new year at home with our children and my mom, then went to sleep and woke up ready to Sparkle!  Folks came out dressed to frazzle and dazzle.  It was a great time and I'm still reminiscing on how great it was to be out with my love...just the two of us.  Many thanks to Sugarcane Restaurant in Brooklyn, NY for having a classic and elegant event.  The food and drinks were fabulous and the music was amazing. Couple time is definitely a must when you are married with children.  We are almost overdue for our next escapade!  Until then...take care.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Image courtesy of Pinterest.

So it's Valentine's Day and everyone's running around trying to find that perfect gift that says "I love you" for their special someone. Well, hubby and me are not really into all that.  We may get each other small tokens of affections but we don't go all out with the dinners, flowers and chocolates.  See, we do these things on a regular basis.  We like to refer to them as surprises!  Every now and then, we would give the children surprises and we would give each other surprises. We don't need a special day to express love.  Love should be expressed on a daily basis.  So to express my love today yet not go overboard, I got him a bottle of our favorite wine, Tomasello's Ranier White. After the kids go to bed, we can sip on a glass of wine and have our quiet time.  That in itself is the best gift.  Sharing our thoughts, quiet moments and dreaming about the future.  Gifts are material but these moments that I speak of can never be replaced.  So make memories with your valentine and don't let gifts be your primary focus.  Gifts are replaceable but these memories are not.  Enjoy your day lovlies!

Take a look at these wines from some of my favorite wineries - Tomasello & Chaddsford.

Presidential Inauguration 2013 & MLK, Jr.'s Birthday

Congratulations to President Obama on his 2nd term.  How befitting that his inauguration fell on Martin Luther King, Jr's Birthday?   May he be blessed with a safe and productive term.  

 

"I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

New Year, New Things!

Happy New Year to my sweet and loyal followers!  How many of you made 2013 New Year's resolutions?  Care to share them with me?  Here are some of mine.

#1 - Let go, let flow!
Once in a while I find myself mixed up in unnecessary drama either with family or friends.  Drama that I could really do without.  Most times, it's truly because I care and want to help.  But the reality is that sometimes it's best to just let folks figure things out on their own.  So I have come to a place of discernment where I have started to ponder (before hand) whether I should just mind my business or not.  More times than not, I'm going to mind my business.  I refuse to spend what little time I have on earth worrying about other people's problems.  I like to think that I'm a caring person but I do believe that sometimes it's okay to be a little selfish for the sake of your own sanity.  The truth is, you can't help everyone but you can pray for them. With that said, this year, I choose to let go and let it flow.

Making Memories at Christmas Time

Well, I must say, so far this has been an amazing holiday season!  It's been a blessing to see my children experience another Christmas.  Their mischievous faces would get serious when their dad and me would warn them that our Elf on the Shelf, "Natalie" was watching to see if they were behaving naughty or nice.  But the best was seeing their little faces light up as they woke up on Christmas morning to see presents under the Christmas tree and then to see they're eager faces as they tore open the presents in great anticipation!  Nothing beats seeing our children happy, smiling, with not a care in the world but just being a child.  My heart and thoughts have been with the families of the children that are now angels in heaven as a result of the fatal Newtown, Connecticut shooting.  It's so unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to make us realize how very blessed we are by God.  We are blessed with children, spouses, mothers, brothers, sisters, other family members and friends. I made sure to take a moment to pray for these families and to thank God for his many blessings that morning.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

So it's no surprise that Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year.  It's not because of the lights, the decorations, the music, the holiday parties, the food or even the gifts.  I just happen to be a very family-oriented person.  I love opportunities to spend time with my friends and family. Whether its laughing, cooking, baking, entertaining, or shopping, there's nothing like the warmth of the folks you love around you.  But I cannot tell a lie, the best way to get into the Christmas spirit usually revolves around the things previously mentioned.  So the evening of Thanksgiving, my family and I put up our tree, decorated the mantle above our fireplace and decorated the dining room.  My hubby went the distance by putting up the garland wrapped with white lights and a wreath on the front door, then he hung the white lights and strategically placed the lighted reindeer outside the house.  I like to refer to him as Mr. Christmas.  Each year, he's always in the Christmas spirit and loves to decorate.  The best part is when he starts to play his reggae Christmas songs, particularly one entitled, "We wish you a Irie Christmas"! :-)

My Thanksgiving Foodie Love Tale

So I finally managed to climb out of my Thanksgiving coma to write this post!  I hope everyone gave thanks for all their blessings and enjoyed their time with family and friends.  I know I did!  I loved having my mom around to talk, cook, shop, watch movies together and hang out with the children.  My little girl was so sad to see her go...it's the cutest thing to hear your babies say, "I miss Gwaama" (with her little Jersey Shore accent)!  So endearing!

Well, I wanted to share how me and my family spent our Thanksgiving.  So our group consisted of my family of four, my mom, my cousin and her family of four, her husband's niece and the niece's husband.  So in total it was 11 of us, which turned out to be a great number.  Not too big and not too small.  The preparations began on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  If I had remembered (mommy brain) to defrost on Sunday night, I might have brined the turkey.  Nonetheless, hubby and I took the turkey out to defrost and soak (salt, vinegar and water)!  We washed and seasoned up that bad boy on Tuesday night (hubby's Caribbean green seasoning, sage, rosemary, parsley, celery, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, chopped oranges).  It marinated all through Wednesday night.  Thursday morning, I rubbed it with some butter and we popped that sucker right in the oven (it cooked for 3.5 hours).